Failed challenge mounted to Audrey Gibson as Duval Dems’ chair

Audrey Gibson holds two posts — State Senator and Duval Democratic Party Chair. And the man she defeated for Chair, James Deininger, says that violates party bylaws.

“I officially challenged the December results of the Duval County Democratic Executive Committee (DCDEC) Chair election to the Florida Democratic Party,” Deininger told FloridaPolitics.com.

Ultimately, that challenge came to nothing. As Duval Dems’ Communications Vice-Chair James Poindexter asserts: “There is now an official ruling from Rhett Bullard, Chair of the FDP Rules Committee: ‘Audrey Gibson is the duly elected Chair of the Duval Democratic Party’.”

Deininger’s beef boiled down to this: “Gibson is ineligible to hold a county party position due to her status as an elected Democratic in Duval according to a FDP bylaw which I was made aware of at the FDP Leadership Blue Gala event in Hollywood Florida this past weekend. In my opinion, the FDP bylaws clearly convey that elected members in a county ‘…shall not serve as officers of the county Democratic Executive Committee’.”

“The only person that garnered votes in the election that was eligible to hold DCDEC office was myself and it seems that the previous DCDEC administration blatantly allowed Sen. Gibson to run as chair even though her ability to serve as Chair is a direct violation of the FDP bylaws,” Deininger wrote to the FDP.

Deininger then went even farther, saying the situation was possibly tantamount to election fraud.

“In my view, at the very worse this is election fraud and at the very least incompetency. This situation must be immediately resolved by the FDP leadership or the FDP Central Committee as it is my belief that I am the duly elected Chair of the DCDEC.”

The man who preceded Gibson as party chair, Neil Henrichsen, sent Deininger a lacerating email in reply.

Shot: “This cannot be for real. Did a Republican operative hack an email account?”

Chaser: “A white guy who complained about alleged racism in the party now wants to over throw an election that took place in accordance with the rules-check with the nominating committee or the chair’s August 2016 precinct committee election- be declared the winner with less than 30 percent of the vote!”

Poindexter had more to say, also.

“Any suggestion that Audrey Gibson is not the duly elected Chair of the Duval County Democratic Executive committee is categorically false. Our organization has many levels of membership, preserving the right to run for leadership positions to duly elected precinct committee persons. Contrary to Mr. Deininger’s spurious accusations, Sen. Gibson properly filed her paperwork, qualified for the ballot, and was duly elected as a precinct committee woman in August 2016. As an elected precinct committee woman, Sen. Gibson has the very same membership privileges Mr. Deininger, including the right to run for and serve as Chair.”